Geese Are Popping up on Notability, but What Do They Have to Do With Taking Notes?
The goose is only available for one day a year.
Published April 1 2026, 9:44 a.m. ET
Most of the time, using Notability is convenient. The app is designed to create useful study guides out of everything from PDFs to hand-written notes. On April 1, 2026, though, some people noticed that there was suddenly a goose running around in their app.
Geese aren't obviously connected to notes in any way, which naturally led many people to wonder why Notability had decided to add a goose to its app. Here's what we know.
Why is there a goose on my Notability?
Goose mode is actually something of a tradition for Notability users. The feature can be turned on and off with a toggle and is tied to April Fool's Day. The feature will only be available on April 1, and if you decide to enable Goose mode, you'll find that you get a little goose running around on your screen as you take notes or do whatever else you might have actually opened the app up to do.
The feature was first unveiled in 2025, and it seems that the goose was enough of a success for Notability that they decided to bring it back.
Although some users have requested that the unobtrusive little critter stay around, the feature is explicitly tied to April 1, so if you've ever wanted to interact with a little digital goose as part of your study routine, make sure to take advantage of the feature while you can.
Users were thrilled by Goose mode last year.
It's not uncommon for companies to do something for April Fool's Day that is meant to lighten the mood a little bit. Sometimes, those endeavors backfire in hilarious fashion, but Notability has landed on something that seems to genuinely delight its user base.
If the comments on Reddit from 2025 are any indication, many users didn't just like the goose; they wanted it to stick around the app for as long as possible.
"I hope this is a permanent addition. I like someone hanging out with me while Iām studying. If they add more animals, it would be really nice. Like a puppy or cat. Maybe even a dinosaur," one person wrote on Reddit.
"I LOVE IT SO MUCH!! Can this please be permanent?" another person added. Clearly, then, users were happy to have someone hanging out with them during what is often a pretty solitary activity.
It seems unlikely that Notability will make the goose a permanent feature, and it's worth noting that part of the reason people seem so delighted by the goose is because of the novelty. Notability likely knows that most people actually use the app for notes, and the goose would eventually get turned off more people if he weren't just a rare treat.
Of course, if you don't like the goose, you can just turn it off for the sole day a year that it's available. If you've been looking for a little fun in your note-taking, though, the goose is there for at least a day.